What Is a Notice of Furnishing? Ohio's 21 Day Rule, in Plain Words
The notice a subcontractor or supplier serves to record that they are furnishing labor or material to a project. Ohio is the state the term is most associated with, and ORC 1311.05(B) sets the deadline at 21 days from the first day you furnish.
Also called NOF, Ohio notice of furnishing.
Fill in the Ohio notice of furnishing The form from ORC 1311.05(B), word for word, filled in here and downloaded as a PDF. Free, no signup.What it does
A notice of furnishing is the same kind of document as a preliminary notice or a Florida notice to owner. It puts the owner and the general contractor on notice that you are on the job and will expect payment, before anybody is late.
The reason the law wants it is that an owner paying a general in good faith can still be liened by a sub or a supplier they have never heard of. Requiring early notice gives the owner a chance to manage that, usually by collecting waivers.
For you it is a gate. Serve it and the lien right is preserved. Skip it and, in the states that require it, the lien right is generally gone no matter how clear the debt.
Ohio, and the 21 days
ORC 1311.05(B) sets out the form and requires it to be served within 21 days after the first day you furnish labor or material to the improvement. The form itself is written into the statute, which is why this site reproduces it word for word rather than paraphrasing it.
Twenty one days is short. It is short enough that the only reliable way to meet it is to serve the notice as part of mobilising on a job, filed alongside the subcontract and the certificate of insurance, rather than as a separate decision somebody has to remember to make.
The clock runs from furnishing, which means the first delivery of material or the first day of labor on site, not the date of your contract and not the date of your first invoice.
Who it goes to
The owner, and the general contractor. In Ohio the recorded notice of commencement is where the addresses come from, and the statute contemplates that document being available to you.
Ask for it. A sub or supplier is entitled to request a copy, and a general who cannot produce one on a job that should have it has told you something useful about how the paperwork on that project is being run.
Keep proof of service. As with every notice in this chain, a document you cannot prove you sent is treated as a document you did not send.
The same idea under other names
Notice of furnishing is one of at least five names for the same mechanism. Preliminary notice, notice to owner, notice of right to lien and pre lien notice are the others you will meet.
The names are not the useful part. What varies between states, and varies a lot, is the deadline, who must receive it, whether it is required of everybody or only of parties without a direct contract, and what happens when it is missed.
The practical approach is to check the rule for the state the property is in, on every job, and to treat the notice as part of starting work rather than part of collecting money.
What it looks like
This is the blank form as this site actually prints it, drawn from the same file the download button gives you. It is not a picture of somebody else's document.
What to do with it
Questions people ask
What is the difference between a notice of furnishing and a preliminary notice?
Nothing structural. They are two names for the early notice that preserves a lien right. Notice of furnishing is the Ohio and Michigan term, preliminary notice is the more common national one, and Florida says notice to owner. What differs between states is the deadline and the recipients, not the purpose.
Who has to file a notice of furnishing in Ohio?
Subcontractors and material suppliers, that is, parties furnishing to the improvement without a direct contract with the owner. ORC 1311.05(B) sets the 21 day deadline from the first day of furnishing, and the form is written into the statute itself.
Does serving a notice of furnishing upset the general contractor?
It should not, and on a well run job it does not, because generals receive them constantly and their own lender expects them. If serving a statutory notice genuinely damages a relationship, that reaction is information about the payment risk on that job.
What if there is no notice of commencement on the job?
Ask the general for one in writing and keep the reply. The absence of a recorded notice of commencement can affect what is required of you, but it is not something to resolve by guessing. Serve what you can, keep the request in the file, and take advice on that specific job if the money gets large.